🤦🏻♂️Don't Make These 6 Noob Entrepreneur Mistakes
Titanium Thursday: Open your mind, learn AI and do this instead!
I’ve made every one of these mistakes along the way, most of them more than once.
Some of us are destined to learn the hard way 🖐🏻
Maybe it has something to do with being born in Norway, with 6 month-long winters and vertical hill walks that make me think it has to be that way...
But whether you’re stuck in the beginning or even in the middle of your journey, wondering where all your free time went and how other entrepreneurs can get it all done so easily, there is a better way.
It isn’t 2010, 2015, or even 2020 anymore. The world has changed, and everything has gotten way, way easier, so let’s dive in and find out how.
🍋🍹In today’s lemon squeeze, you’ll learn:
The six dumb mistakes every entrepreneur makes
What you should do instead to avoid that world of pain
How to use state-of-the-art AI every step of the way
🗞️ Five juicy news bytes you’ll love:
The top Social Media trends of 2025
AI-powered search ads full strategy guide
The ‘virtual’ influencers changing online marketing
The AI model that instructs your cells how to behave
Agentic AI fixes codes for developers online
🤔 Your thoughtful meme of the day
Your employees are your greatest asset
🤖 AI & Business: The six total noob mistakes every entrepreneur makes and what you should do instead
🕰️1. Underestimating Financial/Time Commitments
Impact: 30% of startups collapse from cash crunches (probably more in reality), while as much as 58% bleed time on non-essentials, throwing money down the proverbial toilet.
"I built my empire over 30 years – youths today want overnight success, but tenacity is king."
Aliko Dangote, Nigeria’s first billionaire and currently Africa’s richest business person, took the long view on his success, and it paid off. It's in our nature as entrepreneurs to want everything yesterday and to think it takes half the time to do something twice as long.
He also started with a loan of under $350 and has turned it into a little under $14 billion at the time of writing, so he knows all about counting the pennies to make the dollars count themselves.
Let’s start being realistic, guys, it causes way less pain!
AI Solutions:
QuickBooks' AI forecasts "financial thunderstorms," boosting budget precision by as much as 25%
Pulse automates money-tracking drudgery, freeing up to 15 hours per month.
🙈 2. Flying Blind Without a Battle Plan
Impact: Unplanned ventures tend to fail 2x faster, and as few as 23% map out ‘contingency routes’ (plans b, c, and d).
Michael Porter, the Harvard strategy guru guy, says this; "Strategy isn't about doing everything – it's about choosing what not to do."
You need to know step by step what your plan is, or you don’t have a plan, and that includes saying no to some things so that you can say yes to the things that really count.
Make sure you’ve got daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual plans. Adjust them as you go, and always, ALWAYS believe 100% in your success.
AI Solutions:
Clarity.ai drafts bulletproof business plans 40% faster.
Crayon's AI spies on competitors, arming 67% of users with rival intel.
🤦🏻♀️3. Hiring Misfits & Culture Clashes
Impact: Bad hires drain 30% of salaries annually while tanking morale.
Legendary Brit Richard Branson puts it this way; "Don't fear failure – it's your reset button for greatness."
This applies to every aspect of your business and for many new entrepreneurs, it’s hiring staff that causes the most anxiety.
Trust me, you won’t get it right 100% of the time, so make plans for when it does go wrong, and don’t beat yourself or your hiring manager up over it.
Luckily, today, there are more ways than ever to get this right, and of all the things on this list, it could be hiring that AI tools handle best of all.
AI Solutions:
HireVue decodes candidate vibes with up to 28% better-fit prediction than human hiring professionals.
Greenhouse takes the bias out of hiring by up to 37% with skills-first AI audits.
🌋4. Scaling (Everest) Without Oxygen
Impact: as many as 74% of startups implode by expanding too fast.
Thomas Edison, the persistence poster child, said, "I didn't fail – I discovered 10,000 paths that don't light the bulb."
Expansion is in the DNA of every entrepreneur from birth, maybe even conception, or if you believe in life before life, somewhere out there in the pre-life dimension!
And that’s why you’ve got to rein it in and get the first product, outlet, plant, or service picture-perfect before you scale up.
It’s all about process and knowing how much you and your team can handle without everything going to hell.
Make sure every process has a workflow that can be replicated seamlessly by new employees and that marketing and sales teams are in perfect balance with your production capacity.
AI Solutions:
Asana's AI workload thermometers prevent team meltdowns and help you keep a strict eye on when demand is crushing your ability to respond
Zoho Inventory slashes shipping errors by up to 22% during growth spurts, and is crucial to give you that heads up to be prepared when everything goes right, not wrong!
👻 5. Ghosting Customer Voices
Impact: Brands ignoring feedback haemorage customers by up to 2.5x faster.
Oprah Winfrey puts it this way: "Dream significance, not success – even tiny steps become legendary."
Tiny steps like calling them the F back!
How many times have you been ghosted by a company or service you wanted to hand over your cash to and gone elsewhere instead?
It happens ALL THE TIME!
For the love of god, please get back to all your customers, even if you can’t help them. Don’t be that guy who was all sweet talk during the sales call or on the website and then turns icy cold when the customer wants to start getting serious.
Maybe you can’t help them now, but you never know when that relationship could turn into something beautiful.
AI Solutions:
HubSpot's AI mood rings analyze complaints up to 50% quicker than your human staff.
Qualtrics predicts client needs with an 89% accuracy that almost defies logic.
🥹 6. Snubbing Digital Sidekicks
Impact: Tech-laggards miss 40% of online gold while drowning in inefficiency, and honestly, that is a conservative estimate by any standard.
As B.C. Forbes put it, "If you don't drive tech, tech will drive you… into bankruptcy."
If you’re sitting on your hands on tech, there’s only one way your business can go. You’ll be part of a nostalgia meme of 2020's failed outlets before you know it.
AI and Social Media are your friends. Influencers, whatever your thoughts on some of them, are your friends!
Get used to it and enjoy the ride, and trust me, when you start taking this stuff seriously and see how much time you save and how much money you make, you’ll see it’s seriously fun as well.
AI Solutions:
Hootsuite's AI meme-magician has been known to double engagement literally overnight.
Grammarly Business sharpens communication clarity by up to 44%, and you can hardly put a price on that.
💥 AI's Game-Changing Juice
Adopting these tools isn't optional – it's survival:
Startups using AI finance apps dodge 65% of cashflow crises.
Recruitment bots save $15k/year per employee via smarter hires.
Predictive analytics inflate customer satisfaction by 22%.
"Chaos isn't a pit – it's a ladder for the bold."
Jeff Bezos's words, not mine. AI looks like chaos right now, but in reality, it's that ladder you need to take things to the next level.
🔥 Some Parting Wisdom from the Titans
"Entrepreneurship isn't a sprint – it's a cage match where grit outmuscles genius."
– Steve Jobs
"When headwinds hit, remember – planes take off against the wind."
– Henry Ford
The question isn't if you'll stumble but how loudly you'll laugh while rising. 🚀
📰 The five stories you can’t ignore…
The top Social Media trends of 2025 compiled from 8 different trend-watching platforms - learn more
Full marketing strategy guide on how to use AI-powered search ads - learn more
How AI virtual influencers are taking over more digital marketing space and what it means for your business - learn more
The new AI model deciphers cellular protein codes and instructs them what to do - learn more
Github has activated its ‘agent mode’ that allows AI to fix developers’ code on command - learn more
🤔 Thoughtful meme of the day
Image Credit to Work Chronicles
That’s it for today’s squeeze, folks.
“Work smarter, live better, have more fun.”
Alvin, Founder, Chief Lemon, Serial Entrepreneur, ‘that Norwegian guy who’s on your side’ & Liam, Lead Writing Lemon, ‘that other guy’ (also on your side!)